RAILWAY BLOG

Our Santa Specials started running on Sunday 1st December - and we were very proud that they were hauled by Goliath. This was the first public steaming since the complete restoration in our workshops of 5329 - and Santa was very impressed indeed! The full story of Goliath can be found in the Workshop Blog.

We were really pleased to see Workshop Manager, Steve, his wife Kelly and new baby Poppy - no doubt on her first of many outings to the railway.

We had some really good feedback from our visitors on Saturday - Santa was on form and giving out some great presents to all the children. Lots of mulled wine and mince pies were consumed on the return journey and a great festive time was had by all.

Despite the threat of gale force winds and heavy showers, we had a great day with Catboy and Romeo on Saturday. The rain held off for long enough for the stoytelling sessions on the grass, and we had an undercover punch and Judy show and face painter.

So - last Wednesday saw a visit from a group of 153 naturists, arranged as part of the Nudefest  week. They came at 5pm after the general public had left - to save any blushes - and had train ride, visit to the signal box, engine shed and tea and cake in the cafe. We had some good feedback from them and they were a really nice bunch of people.  It was possibly the most unusual event we have hosted - and we would certainly welcome them back. In case you were wondering , all the ESR staff and volunteers remained fully clothed.....

Wednesdays certainly seem to be the day to visit - yesterday we were very proud to spot Helen Worth amongst our passengers. I'm sure most of you will know her as Gail from Coronation Street.  She enjoyed her day with us and I hope was mostly left to her own devices - but we could not resisit asking her if she would pose for a photo with Barney the Station Dog. She was lovely and very happy to do so. She also suggested a photo with our Station Master for the day, Kerry, who was absolutely delighted to be seen with her.

Today I'm posting an update from Gary Amos on the progress being made on our new Kitchen Coach......

Work has proceeded at a steady pace all year on our new kitchen coach and we are now in sight of putting it into service for the santa Specials and maybe even before that!

The interior renovation and conversion is substantially complete and CW volunteers Andy, Paul and Geoff have been busy inside painting assisted from the loco dept by Mike on kitchen fitting and plumbing and Mac on panelling etc .  Richard from the CW dept has finished the exterior paintwork, lining and lettering. Owen from CTMS has also built the bar and made good job hiding the steam pipe in the disabled dining area.  Dick has made up the seats and kitchen storage units with Mac completing a lot of crucial finishing touches and completing a myriad of “snagging “ tasks to ensure a top-quality finish.  We now have the tables in place for wheelchair users too. Earlier in the year new electrical wiring and lighting was put in by contractors with Ken overseeing this.

Underneath the carriage, we have had a lot of overhaul work to do on the bogies which were originally on the CK coach and had some broken secondary suspension springs.  The coach had to be jacked up to do this work and the bogie rolled out from underneath. New springs have been fitted at one end and seized hornblock guides have been freed up by Gary, Chris and Steve from the loco dept and Roger came in to assist us with this providing some special mini-jacks. Pete, Geoff and Andy from the CW dept have taken the opportunity to repaint the bogies and underframe.  We are just getting ready to jack the coach up at the Shepton end to replace more broken springs and fully service the other bogie before it goes into service.  This is the first time we have had to do a major service on ”commonwealth" bogies and although time consuming we have learnt a lot such that any future work can be completed in a lot less time.

Another busy week for us here at ESR.  The summer flowers on the platform are looking great at the moment with thanks to the constant watering by Lynne, our volunteer. We are always trying to improve our facilities and this week has seen the addition of a new children's swing as well as the start of work on creating a new outside shelter .

We had a great crowd in for Wednesday, including a really fun bunch from Newland Hurst in Droitwich. They enjoyed a cream tea on the train then our fabulous Guard, Kerry, let them have a go at doing his job!

We had a great visit today from St John's School in Frome . They did a few activities, visited the signal box, rode on the minature railway and, of course, the steam train. Our great volunteer Guard, Nick, did a great session with them explaining some of the important aspects of the railway - from how a train works, to how to blow the whistle! They loved it !

For more details about schools visits, click on button below.

The W H Smith's Kiosk which has stood on our platform for sometime, originally came from Salisbury Station.  Although used as a useful storage area for some of our volunteers (their equipment, that is, not the vollies themselves!) it was not really presented to it's best.

Thanks to Derek, it now looks the part once more. See the before and after pictures below.

Here are some photos and a video taken from a drone by Jerry Perkins, quoted below:

'This is a 3D point cloud model of the East Somerset Railway which we’ve created from the 300 plus photos that the drone took when it was buzzing around the site 150ft up. The scale model is created from millions of points. Which is why the model become see through the closer you get. 
This is great for us in Architecture as every one of the points has an X,Y & Z coordinate so we can use the model to produce scale site plans, elevations and sections. As its to scale we can also measure the model within the computer in the same way that you’d measure a drawing with a rule'.

We were all very excited indeed to welcome the Gruffalo back to Cranmore! He had a great day hugging, waving and having his photo taken with loads of visitors, staff and volunteers. I have to say, I think the adults enjoyed meeting him more than the children!

Our first DMU day today - showing off the newly refurbished L231.  We just love the mini First Class carriage behind the driver!  Our next diesel only day will be on the 23rd of July.

The first of our character visits this year was the ever popular Peter Rabbit. He arrived around 10 o clock with his human companion, and made appearances on the platform all day much to the delight of the many visiting children. And, I have to say, adults too! We ran 6 trains throughout the day - both the engines were in service - and Peter waved them all off.

In between times. there was a traditional Punch and Judy show on the platform. The children still love this old fashioned entertainment - but I think it was the adults who really appreciated the slightly non pc humour and tongue in cheek comments from Mr Punch!

Our first public steaming this year! The weather was kind to us and we had both engines (the 56 and the Ivatt) in steam. Children (and adults!) enjoyed the model railway which was running all over the weekend. My first footplate ride!

The year started really well for us - with a visit from Railtours' 'Somerset Strimmer'. The 10 coach diesel pulled into Cranmore on the afternoon of Saturday March 16th along with 500 or so passengers! Despite the fairly wet and blustery weather, the visit went well with most enjoying a steam train ride , refreshements in the cafe and making a fair few purchases in the shop.